Connected Paths
by Jediempress
Summary: Roxas discovers a visitor to the castle and finds there's something familiar about her. Remembering his own initial stay there, he decides to take her out for some air but is this a good idea? Birthday fic for The Wicked Have More Fun. COMPLETE.


This is The-Wicked-Have-More-Fun's birthday fic. Hopefully it covers what she wanted.

* * *

Connected Paths

Roxas heard a sigh coming from the room he passed and slowed down. As far as he knew, the room was one of the vacant ones in the castle and no one should be in it. Who could be in there?

He took a step closer and pressed his ear against the door. He heard another muted sigh and frowned. Now really curious, he slowly cracked open the white wood and glanced inside the room.

He was rather surprised by what he saw. He had seen the blonde girl a few times, mostly catching sight of her as she was escorted to wherever by Marluxia. He had asked Axel who she was but the redhead had only shrugged and said it wasn't their business and to just stay out of it.

The girl was sitting on a low couch before a window and looked up from her sketchbook at the sound of the door. She appeared frightened for a moment but it quickly faded into curiosity. Setting her colored pencil down, she angled her head a little. "Hello, Roxas."

The male Nobody stepped further into the room with a faint frown. "You know who I am?"

"I know the names of everyone in the castle," She placed the sketchbook beside her and turned to fully face Roxas. "I'm Namine."

"Uh, hi," stated Roxas awkwardly. He had no idea who this girl was or why she was here. He wanted to ask her but he remembered Axel's unusual indifference toward her. Normally, Axel was all over anything going on within the Organization. "So… what are you drawing?"

"Oh," she glanced uneasily at her sketchbook. "Just some odd pictures for Marluxia."

That was… interesting.

She rolled her shoulders a little and Roxas noticed that she looked rather tired. She took a shallow breath and began turning back toward the window. Roxas watched her a moment before asking, "How long have you been at it?"

"Today?" Namine tucked some blonde hair behind her ear. There was something familiar about it to Roxas but he did not know what. Then again, now that he thought about it, there was something familiar about the girl in general. "About four hours."

She looked worn. Roxas had a feeling she spent most of her time, if not all of it, in this room drawing. He remembered his first week here and how Xemnas had not allowed him to leave the castle. He still did not know why that had been necessary but it did not matter anymore.

He had hated not being able to go out. Just as he was about to go completely stir crazy, Axel had suddenly appeared at his door with that lazy smirk of his. He told Roxas to follow him and the pair snuck out of the castle. They spent the next few hours wandering The World that Never Was and over the next week, it became a sort of ritual for them.

"Come on," Roxas motioned with his head.

Namine gave him a quizzical look.

"I think you need some air."

The young female bit her lip uncertainly. "Marluxia said not to leave."

Roxas snorted and rolled his eyes. "We'll only be gone for a few minutes. Trust me."

Namine continued to look unsure but she slowly stood and walked over to him. Once she was beside him, he turned and headed down the hall, waving at her to follow. At the first cross-hall, he paused and looked around for a moment before going right, Namine right behind him.

Upon reaching the main hall, Roxas scanned the area yet again. When he was certain the coast was clear, he opened up a dark corridor and held out his hand to the petite girl. "Come on."

Namine hesitated for only a fraction of a second then took hold of Roxas' offered hand. The pair stepped into the portal and almost instantly emerged on a dark, building lined street. The only light was provided by the neon of the buildings and the large moon that hung low in the sky.

"Wow," Namine breathed out slowly, glancing around with wide eyes. "This is more amazing than I pictured."

"Yeah," Roxas agreed, recalling the first time Axel had taken him into the empty city outside the castle proper. "It's almost tragically beautiful."

Namine angled her head, an intrigued look coming to her eyes. "That's in interesting description, Roxas."

The male blond frowned and faced her. "It is?"

She nodded. Before she could explain, however, Roxas caught movement from one of the side alleys. He automatically went into a defensive position, blocking Namine from the potential threat. He tensed up, ready to fight if necessary…

"And what are you two doing?" Axel stepped calmly into the main drag of the city. He wore a smirk but his eyes were sharp.

"Jeeze, Axel," Roxas glared, relaxing taking a step away from Namine. "I almost Keybladed your ass."

"Like you could, Roxy," the redhead snorted. He then frowned in mock disapproval. "You aren't replacing me with this cute little blonde, are you? It would break my non-existent heart."

"It's not like that." Roxas glanced away, feeling oddly embarrassed.

"Of course not." Axel brushed past him to stand before Namine. "We haven't met yet. I'm Axel, got it memorized?"

Namine smiled. "I know who you are."

"Right," chuckled Axel. Roxas caught a dark look flit through the tall Nobody's emerald eyes. The man abruptly turned and paced a bit in a mockingly thoughtful way. "Now, much as I hate to break up this little date of yours, which the irony of I cannot even _begin_ to explain to you, I overheard Marly say that he was going to check up on his project."

Namine paled considerably. "If he finds out I left…"

"He won't," Roxas assured her, lifting a hand to open a corridor. "Where was he, Axel?"

Axel grinned and walked toward the portal. "Come on. I'll get you both back where you belong before mean ol' flower boy discovers you made off with his little blossom."

Roxas looked at Axel as if he had lost his mind. The redhead simply took Namine's arm and escorted her into the corridor. Roxas frowned at them for a moment, realizing that Axel had to know a lot more about Namine than he was saying.

As he followed them, he wondered what it was.

They exited the corridor in a hallway near the kitchen. Axel released Namine and took point, guiding the two other Nobodies through a back corridor and up an obviously rarely used staircase. He did not say a word as he did.

Before leaving the stairwell, Axel held up a hand. The two blonde's stopped and listened along with the redhead. They could hear faint voices drifting toward them.

Axel turned and whispered, "Okay, I'll go distract them while you get Namine back to her room."

Namine narrowed her eyes a bit, more curious than anything. "Why are you helping me?"

"Cause," Axel shrugged, shooting Roxas a wink. "You're good friends with my best friend. It's just neither of you know it,"

"What?" Roxas asked as Axel waved casually and slipped out. He shook his head in annoyance. "He frustrates the hell out of me sometimes."

Namine smiled. "Best friends have a habit of doing that."

"I guess," the blond male conceded. He took a step closer to the door and listened as Axel's boisterous voice slowly faded. "Okay, let's go."

The pair hurried into the hall and quickly made their way down to Namine's room. Ducking inside, Roxas leaned against the wall as Namine stopped in the middle of the floor and giggled. Roxas studied her a moment before chuckled along with her.

They fell quiet and a peculiar peace settled between them. Roxas still did not know why the girl felt so familiar to him but at the moment he did not really care. It was a nice feeling.

Namine bit her lip shyly and pushed some stray hair behind her ear again. "Thank you, Roxas. It was nice to get out for a bit."

He rubbed the back of his neck and toed the floor. "You're welcome."

There was a pause before Namine turned and headed for the window and her sketchbook. "I better get back to work."

"Yeah," agreed Roxas. He watched her sit and set up to draw. He wanted to ask her a ton of questions but restrained himself. Axel would only be able to distract Marluxia for so long and Roxas needed to be gone before that happened.

With a slight wave, Roxas turned for the door. "See you later, Namine."

"Yeah," the girl spoke softly, an almost sad tone to her words. "Definitely."


End file.
